2014 Ohio History Tax Check-Off Campaign Begins
In first year, over $114,000 granted to Ohio communities thanks to taxpayers' donations

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ohio Historical Society has recruited four famous Ohioans to speak in support of a state income tax check-off that helps fund history- and preservation-related projects in communities across Ohio.

Throughout the 2014 tax season, Ohioans will hear from Annie Oakley, Ulysses S. Grant and Wilbur and Orville Wright as the four opt to make voluntary contributions to the Ohio Historical Society while completing their state income tax returns.

The online videos and other promotional materials are lighthearted reminders about the state income tax "check-off" that benefits local projects in communities across the state through the society's History Fund grants program.

The campaign uses humor to remind Ohioans to consider making a voluntary contribution to the Ohio Historical Society on their state income tax returns. The contributions help fund the grants program.

"This year's tax season is especially important to us because the Ohio General Assembly recently established a new threshold for tax check-off programs," said Ohio Historical Society executive director and CEO Burt Logan.

"We need to generate at least $150,000 each year or the Ohio History tax check-off and the History Fund grant program that it supports could be jeopardized."

In 2013, the Ohio Historical Society received $137,153 from 15,890 Ohioans who contributed to the grant program through their state income tax returns.

The Ohio Historical Society announced the first 11 History Fund grants in February 2013. Funded through voluntary contributions made on state income tax returns in 2012, the grants were awarded on a competitive basis.

"The first year has been a huge success for Ohio history," Logan said. "For just $8 -- the average donation -- Ohioans are helping to repair historic landmarks, preserve early color film footage from rural Ohio and stage a historical reenactment, among other projects."

Betty Lou Higgins of Eden Valley Enterprises in Elyria, which received one of last year's grants, said "Without the History Fund grant and the generous contributions of Ohio taxpayers, our project might not have happened and Emma Gatewood's story would be relegated to obscurity." Higgins and her organization are using the grant to create a documentary about "Grandma" Gatewood, an Ohioan who hiked the entire 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail in 1955 at age 67, becoming the first woman ever to hike the whole trail solo.